Tension and Relaxation

Side note: In some ways, “tension and relaxation” are inaccurate terms. It’s not possible to play completely relaxed, there will always be some degree of tension, or activation, involved in playing. We should really be talking about the degree of muscle contraction needed for this or that motor act … But we’ll use those terms anyway, because they’re so handy!

Tension itself is not necessarily bad, provided it is immediately released. The real killer is accumulated tension. This is the tension that hangs around and builds up in your forearm or wrist, or even in your back, torso, forehead, wherever. It’s easy to think of this tension as a necessary component for playing 1. It’s not.

(There is a physical side to playing, of course. Your muscles still have to move as you play, and you are giving muscles a workout. But these are very extremely tiny muscles, very fine tuned. You should never have any extreme stress.)

Along with the obvious muscle cramps and pains, tension creates “noise” in the central nervous system. This not only impedes the nerve impulses which are the basis of technique, it also stifles your freedom and creativity. I’ll leave it to Claudio Arrau, one of the 20th century’s monster pianists, to explain this some more:

If you keep your body relaxed, the body is in contact with the depths of your soul. Is that clear? Because it’s quite important. If you are stiff, in any joint, you impede the current, the emotion, physical current of what the music itself dictates to you. If you have a stiff joint, you don’t let it go through [into the instrument]. Claudio Arrau, YouTube interview

Causes of tension

Tension accumulates when your muscles don’t relax completely at the right time.

Any cyclic movement involves antagonistic muscle groups. First one muscle group poles one way, and then it relaxes while another muscle group pulls the other way. If that first muscle hasn’t completely relaxed, the second has to fight it to accomplish its own task. It the second muscle also can’t relax due to the higher stress placed on it, things will spiral and tension will accumulate. The term “relaxation” in playing refers to releasing a muscle before its counterpart contracts. Learning to release and contract in time is a matter of coordination, not a matter of strength.

Another source of accumulated tension is mental tension. With this, your brain can send misguided impulses to other completely unrelated muscle groups. For example, you might be tensing your shoulders, or your neck, or your for head while playing.

Sometimes, this tension can become so deep-rooted that it underlies all of your playing, and kills your technique.

Don’t “play through” tension

If notice tension building as you play or practice, stop immediately, and figure out what is going on.

Tension can be a sign of your body trying to somehow exert control over what it’s doing. For example, if you are trying to pick a fast arpeggio, and have a lot of forearm tension, that can be because your body is trying to prevent errors.

If you continue to work on it, you’ll accommodate and somehow incorporate that excess tension into your technique, thinking that it’s a necessary component. Martin Miller calls that “false technique”.

If you try to “push through” this tension, to “build endurance”, you’re just ingraining that bad pattern deeper into your brain and muscles.

So, if you feel tension accumulating, stop.

Relaxation drills

This book is generally not about specific drills, but here are some I recommend:

General relaxation

There are several relaxation exercises and ideas on the internet. Some effective ones I can suggest are:

  • A guided meditation and body scan (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B_NSBWGYCw). Spend 15 minutes meditating and becoming aware of the tension you carry in various body parts, and your nervous system.

  • Self-monitoring: rate your tension in any body part on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is completely relaxed, and then see if you can let it go and drop to a lower number. For example, “I have some tension in my left shoulder, I’d say it’s about a 4, I’ll see if I can make it a 2.” This sounds very simple, but the idea of measuring it somehow makes it more tractable.

Of course, when practicing, don’t forget to actually get up and stretch periodically, as well as scan your full body for excess tension (head, forehead, neck, shoulders, arms, torso, legs). And rest, and drink lots of water, all of the regular advice.

Fretting hand

Merce Font is a classical guitarist. Her fretting hand relaxation drill is succinct and a great start to any practice session, to remind you of how little you need to work:

Picking hand

I used to have a pile of tension in my picking hand and arm, so I borrowed some ideas from a superb piano teacher, Barbara Lister-Sink, and adapted them for guitar. They’ve helped me immensely.

Tip

aim to associate picking up the guitar with a relaxation response.

1

I played for so many years with chronic tension in my wrists and arms that I thought it was necessary. I built a limited technique around all of that. My conditioned reflex when picking up the guitar was to immediately tense up – I thought that was “readiness”.